Interview time!

I am lining up interviews with aspiring, debut, and established authors. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave a comment. 

If you know an aspiring author who is too shy to speak up, introduce us to each other.

 

This should be fun.

Help Wanted!

Help Wanted!

My debut middle grade novel, Blues Bones, is getting closer to its release date this coming spring. I am building a Street Team. What’s that you may ask? It’s a group of people who want to help promote the work of an author.

Have you ever wanted to be part of a special club? A street team consists of a group of people who help an artist promote his, or her, work. I think it started with rap artists, but it works for book promotion too. It’s important to get the word out .
Members get perks.

• Constant updates on the status of the book.
• Be the first to see what the cover will look like. (Should be soon)
• Be among the first to read the book and post reviews.
• Share information with your friends about the book.

It’s easy. If you like to read, it’ll be a breeze. Oh, and posting a review isn’t difficult at all. Just share with the world what you thought about the book and your take on it. That’s it.

If you don’t like to read, you can help too! Just agree to share information with your friends when you can.

Most of the information you will share is as simple as clicking share on Facebook, or clicking copy and pasting.

Here is a link to my author page on Leap Books website where you can read a little about Blues Bones.  http://leapbks.net/rick-starkey

You just do what you can, when you can. Every little bit helps.

So, if you think you would be interested in joining my team for Blues Bones, click here to sign up. http://goo.gl/forms/5nOfr4uwKM

Thank you for your support!

Until next time, keep reading and sharing your favorite books with others.

Rick

Win a free book!

Win a free book!

I have a lot of author friends who have contest to give away free books to promote their new book. Sometimes an author will ask me to read his or her book to write a review and help spread the word.  I love helping others in this way. It’s fun, and it’s a great way to keep up with the changing market by knowing what is getting published.

There are tons of the contest going on to win free books. Some authors team up and give away a whole bunch of books to one lucky winner. So many times I am tempted to enter the contests, and then ask myself if the book, or books, is something I would normally read. I know the hard work that goes into writing a book and getting it published. Somewhere along the line it is costing money to give the book away for free. Why should I build a collection of books that I probably will never read? If I don’t read them, it is a waste of time and money for whoever is behind the contest.

Do you enter a contest just to be a winner?

PiBoIdMo!

It's that time. Thirty picture book ideas in thirty days!

Come join the fun!

http://taralazar.com/piboidmo

Case of the Washed-up Warlock (Poison Ivy Charm School #2)

Thirteen-year-old Tulip Bonnaire moonlights as a private investigator at Poison Ivy Charm school, and her latest case depends on uncovering an old secret to prove her crush Dex hasn't been casting harmful spells. She's in for quite a scare with this case.

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26213461-the-case-of-the-washed-up-warlock

Amazon http://amzn.com/B00LIHGES6

Amazon http://amzn.com/B015JFYE5W

Patrice Lyle has never met a ghost story she didn’t like. She’s been fascinated with the paranormal since childhood. She attributes this fascination to having heard old family stories of ghostly wreaths, ESP, and money hidden in the lining of antique purses. She grew up on the Oregon Coast and has a Master’s Degree in Writing Popular Fiction. Now she lives with her husband and two cats on Florida’s Space Coast, where she’s working on her next novel under an umbrella on the beach. For more information, please visit her website at www.patricebooks.com. 

  www.patricebooks.com.

Excerpt:

“Any news yet?” He sat down on his bed and wedged himself against a mountain of pillows.

            I was about to answer when a glint of gray caught my eye. A stone the size of a cookie, with an uneven hole in the middle of it, sat on his bedside table. “Is that your enchanted sea hag stone?” The one that had started all the trouble?

            “Yeah. Glad she finally woke up and told me ’bout Dexter busting into my closet.”

            I ignored him and approached the troublemaking pebble. Its smooth exterior was cool against my skin when I rolled it between my fingers. Not a sign of life existed until I dropped it – kinda accidentally – onto his table. Thud.

            Dark, creepy eyes appeared, lined with spiky, green eyelashes. A tiny mouth with slimy black lips emerged around the hole. And a long, carrot-shaped nose covered in warts jutted out. “Hey, you. Don’t drop me like a bag of dirt.” Her voice screeched like a spider monkey on a rampage.

            I laughed. “You talking about Garrett’s Lev performance?”

            Garrett cleared his throat. “That’s not my fault. It’s a spell.”

            “Don’t you drop me again, you idiotic hooligan.” The sea hag had a ’tude stronger than Alexandria’s.

            I wanted to fling the stupid stone out the window, but that wasn’t the best way to get information. If the dumb hag had seen Dexter, maybe she’d seen something else that could help me solve the case.

            “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to.”

            “Yeah, right. I know a rock dropper when I see one.”

            I stifled a smirk and a smart comment about a rolling stone. “You see anything else suspicious in Garrett’s room?”

            She batted her needle-like eyelashes. “Nothing but that nerd ’lock who slipped in here like some moron ghost who hasn’t mastered being dead yet. He fumbled with the door forever before crashing in like a nitwit.”

            Anger shot through my veins like an ink pen explosion. First Garrett had insulted Dex. And now some stone with a hideous, old hag face? Who do they think they are? I grabbed the dumb rock with both hands and pinched the sea hag’s ugly warty nose, intent on breaking it off.

            But she bit me!

            Her moldy teeth chomped down on my fingers, drawing blood.

            “Ouch! You stupid sea hag!” I tried to hurl her against the wall, but her grip was like a pit bull’s.

            If pit bulls had carrot-shaped noses, spider monkey voices, and moldy teeth.

            “Get this thing off me,” I yelled at Garrett. “Or I’ll drop your case.”